Bits and pieces of my life. I am a lifelong Christian. I have been married for over 39 years to Stan. No children. We have 3 Italian Greyhounds: Persephone, Dresden & Capodimonte and a calico cat named Binky. We have 9 nieces/nephews and 9 grandnieces/nephews whom we love. My hobbies are genealogy, reading, digital scrapbooking, history, dogs, homemaking. This is a personal blog and not a business. I share what interests me and I am not selling anything or making a profit.

Pages

..........Contact me at Mom25dogs@gmail.com.........

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Another Clive Cussler book and it's the first novel of the Oregon Files. It seems that there is a very decrepit, old, derelict tramp cargo ship named the Oregon. But beneath the Oregon's rusty, shabby appearance is a state of the art, modern ship with a highly trained team of mercenaries. They take on jobs that nobody else can do and that are for the world's greater good. They call themselves The Company. Juan Cabrillo is the Chairman of the Corporation. His next in comman is Max Hanley, the President of the Corporation. Next is Richard Truitt, the Vice President of Operations.

The book starts with the invasion and occupation of Tibet by China and the exile of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama who takes with him a fabulous golden Buddha. The Golden Buddha is a 6' tall solid gold Buddha statue created in 1288 and given to the Dalai Lama in 1372. It is studded with precious stones. After the Dalai Lama made it out of Tibet in 1959, the Golden Buddha was stolen as they went through the Phillippines and has been missing since. But now, it's come up for auction and The Company gets involved in getting the Golden Buddha back to it's rightful owner and getting the Dalai Lama and his Golden Buddha back in to a free Tibet.

From beginning to end, this book doesn't stop with their thrills and adventures. The only comment I would make is that it goes too fast. Everything is done in exact minutes and yet, the logistics make it pretty much impossible for someone to move that fast. I think Cussler and Dirgo should have slowed it down a little to make it more believable. But it was fast and rivetting. After I finished it, I read it aloud to my sister and her son at the beach and on the way back from the beach. They really enjoyed it too.

This is a mystery novel based on the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. On May 31, 1883, thousands of people will be on the new bridge for it's opening. It's the perfect time for terrorists to demolish the bridge and make their statement. Seven desperate former Confederate soldiers, with revenge on their minds for their loss during the Civil War, have been planning to destroy the bridge for years. The chief engineer of the bridge was Washington Roebling and Washington Roebling was a Yankee Captain during the War and he came face to face with the leaders of the former Confederate soldiers during the Gettysburg battle of Little Roundtop. The brother of Captain Thaddeus Erasmus Sangree remembers that Roebling had directed the gunners and his brother, Franklin, had been hit by the shrapnel. Franklin knew he was dying but it was a gut wound and his death would be a long, horrible one so he begged Thaddeus to shoot him in the head and Thaddeus had had to do it. Thaddeus had never forgotten and he and his men want revenge.

Sergeant Detective Tom Braddock tries to solve the murder of Terrence Bucklin, a bridge mason. How does this lead Braddock to the plot of terrorism? Who killed Bucklin and why? And Tom Braddock has to weave himself through the corrupt politics in the police force of the time too. He nearly loses his own job and his own life.

A Lincoln Rhyme novel by Jeffery Deaver. The Coffin Dancer is a famous hit man that Lincoln Rhyme has wanted for a long time. The Coffin Dancer is so named due to a tattoo of a woman dancing with death in front of a coffin (the dance with death). It seems that Phillip Hansen, a multimillionaire, who made his money from weapon sales, was involved in the murder of two army privates and the hijacking of a truckload of small arms. Hansen is a pilot and 3 people (a couple and their friend) see him one night putting duffle bags on his small plane and coming back without the duffle bags. The police think they can be key witnesses against Hansen but Hansen hires a hit man, the Coffin Dancer, to kill the witnesses. The husband, Edward Carney, is killed at the beginning of the novel by a bomb on his jet. The wife, Percey, and their friend, Brit, are taken into protective custody. Lincoln Rhyme and his associates are on the case and the twists and turns begin.

It's a good novel, except there is too much unnecessary language. And you will be surprised with the ending. Deaver pulls a last rabbit out of a hat on the last pages!

Amy Redwing has a terrible past that she ran away from and now runs a Golden Retriever rescue organization called Golden Hearts. She is the girlfriend of an architect named Brian McCarthy who has his own past to come to grips with. Amy gets a call from an abused wife to rescue their Golden Retriever from her drunken, violent husband. She and Brian ride out there and not only save the beautiful Golden Retriever named Nickie but the wife and their two abused children too. Nickie turns out to be an exceptional dog and Nickie helps them confront and overcome their pasts.

There is much evil and some bad language but it was an appropriate part of the story. The only beef I have with Koontz is that the build up was the whole book and the resolution was one page! I would have liked to feel a little righteous revenge and had the resolution last a little longer. But the book ends well and that helps.

Koontz's love for dogs showed through this book and resonated with me.